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Mike Chioda
| birth_place = Twin Hill Park, Willingboro, New Jersey | death_date = | death_place = | resides = | billed = | trainer = Joey Marella | debut = 1983 | retired = }} Michael Joseph Chioda, (August 1, 1964) is a senior referee who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment. While not refereeing, Chioda, as well as the other referees in WWE, help set up the arena before shows, constructing the ring and stage areas. Early career WWF As a young man, Chioda lived close to the Marellas (Gorilla Monsoon and his adopted son Joey), who helped him break into the wrestling business. Being trained as a referee, Chioda first began to appear in WWE in 1989, when it was known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), most notably at Survivor Series 1989. After taking a hiatus from refereeing following WrestleMania VII, he began to reappear on camera around 1993. Chioda has also competed in an actual wrestling match, teaming with Chris Jericho and The Rock to take on the team of The Dudley Boyz and referee Nick Patrick on an episode of SmackDown! in 2001. Chioda actually scored the pinfall victory after delivering his version of "The People's Elbow" to Nick Patrick. During the WWF tenure, he officiated matches such as Shawn Michaels vs. Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIV, Triple H vs. Vince McMahon at Armageddon 1999, The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania X8. Following the September 11 attacks, Chioda began to wear an American flag patch on his referee shirt. World Wrestling Entertainment During the WWE Brand Extension, Chioda was sent to SmackDown! to become senior referee of that show. On an "All Referee" edition of the WWE.com show Byte This! in 2004, he told an inquiring Josh Mathews that he did not like the old-style "button-up and bow-tie" referee attire, preferring, at the time, the SmackDown! variant of referee shirt. During his tenure on SmackDown, he officiated a match between The Big Show and Brock Lesnar in which Lesnar performed a superplex on Big Show and the ring (was triggered to) collapsed. Chioda would rule the match a no contest. In 2003, he was traded to Raw. Following the firing of Raw's senior referee Earl Hebner in 2005, Chioda was appointed as Raw`s head referee. At WrestleMania 23, he refereed the match against John Cena and Shawn Michaels but got taken out after being hit with Sweet Chin Music by Michaels. During his time as Raw brand head referee he would officiate Raw matches such as Triple H vs. Batista at WrestleMania 21, John Cena vs. Triple H at WrestleMania 22, Cena vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 23 and Cena vs Batista at SummerSlam 2008. He also appeared in an episode WWE Tough Enough s second season. However, in November 2008, referees were made no longer exclusive to certain brands. Chioda refereed his first match on SmackDown in three years on November 28, 2008, when he refereed the Beat The Clock Match between Shelton Benjamin and Triple H; during the match, Chioda was knocked down and the match ended in controversy when it was decided that Jeff Hardy and Triple H finished their matches in the same amount of time. To settle this, the WWE Championship Match at Armageddon was made a Triple Threat Match. On August 15, 2011, Chioda was suspended for 30 days due to his first violation of the WWE's Talent Wellness Program. On April 1, 2012, Chioda would referee the match between John Cena and The Rock at Wrestlemania XXVIII in front of 78,363 people attending at Sun Life Stadium, Miami, Florida. Chioda was featured as the referee in the 2012 iOS game, WWE Wrestlefest. Trivia *Mike Chioda appears as a referee in the Smackdown vs RAW video games. *Mike Chioda did the Grunt noises for the game WWF Royal Rumble, alongside Tony Chimel. External links *Official WWE Profile *Online World of Wrestling Profile Category:Referees Category:1964 births Category:1983 debuts Category:World Wrestling Entertainment current roster Category:Living people